Strange and Alone
by blossomstar16
Summary: Two people, destinies pretdetermined. Dreams. Danger, Romance, Evil and Fate all fighting for control in them. It may not make sense, but they don't get it either. BEING REVISED
1. Prolouge

She grew up strange

She grew up strange. She was definitely Asian; there was that angle to her eyes and paleness to her skin. The rest of her was a walking contradiction. She had red gold hair, almost a pinkish orange when the sun hit it. Her eyes were sharp and wide, a delicate pale green the color of sea-foam and new leaves and hope and hope and hope—

Her name was Sara. She was definitely strange. She didn't belong here. She was meant for better things.

--

He grew up alone. He was most definitely Asian, he had the black hair and dark eyes and paleness to his skin. The rest of him was bitter and more of a child than a man. He was the lost sheep of the fold. He was the one everyone would give anything to find, give anyone up just for him. His eyes were cold and dark and made up of rage and hate and hate—

His name was Shawn. He was definitely alone. He didn't belong here. He was meant for better things.


	2. Dreams

Sara always visited the park near her apartment complex after school. She went whenever she had any free time, really. She maintained a 3.9 GPA so her mother couldn't complain. She really loved walking, especially by herself. Occasionally she would run into a classmate or a neighbor and chat for a while, but for the most part she kept to herself.

She always felt, ever since she saw the picture of her most definite birth father that she was meant to be completely different from everyone else.

The park was nameless, dirty, but incredibly peaceful, with a long winding path that surrounded the pond and playground. The pond was scummy and covered with ducks and geese that made a cacophony of noise when ever a toddler chased them. The day was sunny, hot, and humid with moisture choking the air. Sara Harolds had just chopped off her beautiful hair to give to locks of love, and was listlessly fondling her new spunky haircut. She was wearing battered old sneakers and tan shorts with a red sleeveless top. She noticed the mothers ushering their children slightly away when she approached the rusted swing set she had sat everyday since she was eights, barring days when the weather was bad. She sighed at their efforts, but she was used to it. She was used to seeing people avoid her. Her own mother avoided her.

Since the day her mother saw the first curly red hair on her baby's head, she became a little distant. When Sara turned out looking like some freak, a red-haired Asian, she stopped talking to her altogether, giving her meals and money but no love.

Sara's society was much more complex than it really needed to be. Their faith lost in science after several major global disasters in a row, the world looked to legends and myths for guidance, placing the moon, sun, and stars in high regard.

Sara believed in dreams. To her, dreams always meant something important, to premonitions, to truths, to things that were lost and needed to be found. She also had several reoccurring dreams that bothered her more than any of the other ones.

One was a pink haired teen running through a forest, jumping from tree to tree and over a great gorge before landing in a heap and sobbing under the full moon. Another was of a black haired little boy screaming at the top of his lungs that everyone betrayed him, before being killed with a hundred knives in the back.

These especially haunted her, because she didn't know who either of them were, but they felt more familiar than any of the other people in her life.

Sara didn't like the moon, mostly because of her dreams.

She much preferred the Sun. It was bright and happy, burning evil out of all of the bad places during the day, giving life to the whole planet.

She got up from the swings, and wandered around the path aimlessly. She stumbled down a forgotten track that she had never noticed for all of her time combing the park for hiding places. She saw a grove of orange trees, in full bloom despite the autumn heat, and the distinct smell of crushed mint leaves and thyme. She saw a girl of around fifteen sitting in the center, meditating. She smiled, then opened her wide brown eyes.

"Hi." she said. "I'm Hope. You can call me Tenten though." The girl had large brown eyes and two ornate buns in her dark brown hair. She was dressed in a pair of khaki Capri's with cargo pockets and a large white shirt that made her look much smaller than she was. She stood up, and cocked a hip with a smirk.

"Want to hear a crazy tale?" She asked.

"That depends." she replied, monotone. Like always.

"On what?" She returned.

"On whom it's about." Sara said. Tenten smiled.

"That's easy. It's about you. And me. And the world where you really belong." Sara smiled a true grin of overwhelming happiness.

"I always knew I never belonged here. But, if this isn't where I belong, where do I?" she sat down. Tenten followed suit, plopping herself down in the lush grass.

"Okay. So you were born looking like neither of your parents, despite blood tests and DNA test claiming otherwise, you feel out of place, you feel lonely and ...."

"And your dreams are filled with people you don't know but seem so familiar." Tenten grinned.

"Exactly! Welcome to the Door of Souls. This whole place appears only when you look for it actively, or if it wants to find you itself." She gestured to the Nature defying grove scented with herbs and orange blossoms. Sara blinked at the girl.

"Where to first?" she asked. Tenten's grin got wider.

"You know how you look Asian? Its cause you are. This certain...realm is where you were supposed to be born. So you automatically can understand the language that they speak here too. More natural, I guess."

They both backed away from the center of the trees, and Tenten closed her eyes, humming softly. A great light the color of the sun, all fiery and omnipotent, slowly burned its way into existence, and flashed its way open unto a grassy knoll with the outline of a sprawling city behind it. Tenten released her hand and started through.

"Aren't you coming? This is what you've been waiting for!" Sara scrambled to catch up.


	3. The Secret Place

Sara followed Hope—Tenten, to her secret place

Sara followed Hope—Tenten, to her secret place. The first time she had ever come here was when her mother had forgotten to make dinner for her, she had only made it for herself. She barely existed. She had run to the park, hoping to find solace, sanctuary.

She felt her heart pull her towards a thicket of orange trees and blueberry bushes. in the center was a small hollow, just large enough for five people to fit comfortably. It was surrounded by grass and full of stone in the middle. Right away she knew she belonged here much more than she did than in the nonexistent family she was a part of.

The secret place.

So it had always been _**The Secret Place**_, but it had held power.

The door of souls.

A gateway to the other worlds.

It was where all beings could be united. Hope—Tenten, she kept telling herself, that there were multiple layers to the world. She could transcend into anyone at any given time, just by dreaming...wishing that she could.

Tenten showed her the one that immediately felt like her home. The village was full of trees. In the center of the sprawling town was a large red building that held the Japanese symbol for 'fire'.

"Tenten, how can I read Japanese?" Her voice cracked and died from disuse. Tenten smiled broadly, showing her white teeth.

"Here we can all understand each other, here languages do not exist, we can convey our feeling just by wanting to. For signs, we can use what ever alphabet we want, we can understand it anyway. We also have powers here. I'm gifted with accuracy in weapons. You were made to be a healer."

Sara had found her place. She felt whole. She felt like she was part of the very earth here, kitted into the very fabric of time and space.

She had found her destiny. Everyone has one here.


	4. her, him

Shawn was in his secret place

Shawn was in his secret place. It was a cave overlooking the river, hidden by scraggly roses and choking ivy. It was full of the dark, it was full of damp.

It was made just for him, it felt.

He was already alone, his family long gone and his sanity along with them. All that was left was the dark and the silence.

School was full of avoidance: the gazes, the answers, the questions. Simpering girls with long lashes, teachers with threatening glares and pitying looks.

He was a no one, a handsome no one, but a no one none-the-less. Lunch was always spent in the tree in the courtyard, staring at the sun.

He hated the sun. His day-mares were always full of the sun shining on his family at a picnic, enlightening the recesses of his mind. Showing him the things he didn't want to see. It was his demon, so he hated the sun.

He preferred the moon. It was cooler, calmer. Not bright enough to show the things he can't bear.

His childhood was over before it had even started. A suppressed psychotic for a brother meant that one day he would lose control. One day he could go crazy too. It was genetic. He had been blessed with looks and charm, so his mind paid the price. He had once had happiness, so it had been taken away.

For everything good, something bad was there too.

Perfect balance.

Natural order.

Only his secret place was different. The walls weren't white, but they were as black as his soul had become. It was a place without light. It defied his principle of how the universe worked.

So it belonged to him. Then Shawn meant Nick. Nick was the embodiment of the sun, he was overflowing with confidence and radiance and love and joy and—

He was happy. He was light.

Shawn was sad. He was dark.

The balanced each other out. Nick broke down walls. He made Shawn into a friend. He showed him that the light could be good.

Then he was gone, as if he didn't even exist in the first place. He only found a note.

_Find the door of souls._

_It's _her _Secret Place._

He had no idea what it meant. So his life slowly sunk back into the dark. Days.

Weeks.

Months.

A year.

Two.

Nick came back and brought a candle to his secret place.

"Start with some light." He said.

Shawn followed the wax to the park on the farside of town. He found a small cluster of young trees and soft bushes. He pressed his hand into the rock and said,

"light."

It was all that was needed.

He was known as Sasuke know. He had found his destiny.

He still had to find _her._


End file.
